Plant Based Love Salad

We know that leaning toward or switching completely to a plant based diet is the single most important way to help the environment. The production of beef and other animal protein consumes huge amounts of water, fossil fuels, topsoil, and destroys our forests, while polluting our water and air.
And don't even get me started about the worst perils of meat production...Meat production causes more greenhouse gases, carbon dioxide (CO2), methane, and nitrous oxide to spew into the atmosphere than either transportation or industry!

So if you're like me, you're constantly looking for high protein plant based foods! The good news is, these foods are out there in abundance.

I was thrilled to find a product called Sprouted Mung Beans, by TruRoots, and even more happy to discover that each serving has 10 grams of protein.

This past Valentine's Day I made brunch for a friend, and I had a vision of combining the mung beans with quinoa to pack in even more protein awesomeness.

After a trip to the market it was clear what was in season and I shopped accordingly to add some magic to the overall vision of protein combining.

The result is the Plant Based Love Salad! I hope you enjoy it as much as we did!

To prep the baby asparagus, find the "natural breaking point" on each asparagus spear’s end, separating the tender flesh toward the tip from the woody end, wash, and prepare a shallow baking pan.

Place the clean asparagus in pan and coat with Nutiva Refined Coconut Oil or Nutiva Sunflower and Red Palm Oil and bake at 375 for 20 minutes, stirring 2-3 times in the process. At 15 minutes in, salt the asparagus generously.

While that is cooking, dice and combine the following vegetables in a large mixing bowl: